Transcript — What’s the Deal with NIU

Good afternoon, Wisconsin.

Welcome to WFHRs Playmakers!

Afternoon, everybody.

Welcome to the show.

Hope you're having a great one out there.

Thank you so much for joining us on this Wednesday edition of Playmakers.

Have your host, James J.

I am joined by Michael Comer.

Yeah, how you doing, buddy?

Good to see you, bud.

Thanks for being here.

Appreciate the time.

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Wisconsin Rapids.

Michael and I got plenty to talk about today.

We're going to give them some River Kings talk about the college football announcement,

of course, with all the placement of these teams and who is angry, who is not, who is

higher-seated than they should be.

The sports awards are a celebration is coming up tomorrow.

I want to talk about that a little bit.

I got some other stuff, too, but if you don't mind, I got a good stat of the show a little

bit later.

We'll wrap up looking at the college and the NFL schedules.

We'll talk some brewers.

If we get a chance, too, I didn't want to send a shout out to them a little bit.

But do want to get right here with where everybody's focus was yesterday and locked into.

And there was an intense time and I understand that.

But the NFL trade deadline is done.

The NFL trade deadline is done, everybody.

So I got sick and tired of seeing ads about that.

I know.

You know, the attack ads were really weird to see.

I didn't expect that.

Yeah, why would you want to go to Chicago or Detroit?

Remember, right, right.

It's just weird.

It's weird.

They're not the two of the off-season.

So they just start working with them.

Well, let's not give them ideas.

You know what?

I'm going to show them.

The closest thing we had was Reggie.

This is God.

Oh, come to Crab Bay.

You're not going to get better for you.

You're not going to get more wonder that.

I did want to start with the NFL trade deadline.

Some interesting moves that happened.

And some interesting things now.

I think that we got to start local here and with the Green Bay Packers trading press and

Smith.

And I think that I don't think it's far fetched to say that if you are a packer fan or just

that you focus on the NFC North like I do and all our listeners pretty much do, you're

thinking, well, the Lions, the Vikings and the Packers are all buyers.

Arguably, the bears will be sellers, but what do they have to sell?

As far as willing to part with because they're trying to build something.

Right.

I mean, they're loaded at receiver, maybe pick up another runner running back.

I know they traded or running back.

They traded him away, but how much did he really play to all that fun stuff?

But interesting that you brought that up, I mean, we can, I know we're going to talk

about Preston here, but, you know, is there a Smith going to Detroit?

You know, I've never had a problem with Zadarius as a player.

Be solid.

I mean, I thought that was really cool.

You know, he was sack and they'd army crawl through or grenade.

I mean, that was funny.

I still think it's funny.

But as long as he decides to play and not complain about an injury and feel slighted

somewhere, he'll be good for Detroit.

He'll give them an added pass rush, but that, that I still have a little bit of bitterness

of the, like we talked about last week with Diva defensive backs.

Oh, yeah.

I've got a little bit of that with him because I mean, I will say this much when he came

back through most of that seat, missing most of that season with the back injury, and

I'm not going to fault anybody for needing surgery for an injury.

That's a legit thing.

Yeah.

But, I mean, that first couple of possessions, he was playing with his hair on fire against

San Francisco in the, in the divisional game, and then it got really quiet.

Yeah.

It's like he blew his wad right then, and that was the end of it.

I'm kind of curious to know what number he'll wear for Chicago next year when he, he

completes the trifecta of playing for all the NFC North teams.

Oh, I'm very curious.

Are you sure he might not stop with the New York Packers first?

Oh, you may be.

Maybe.

Actually, he'll probably be a jet.

He'll definitely be a jet.

Absolutely.

He'll definitely be a jet.

So, the Green Bay ends up being sellers and not buyers, and while not necessarily training

the house or the farm, it immediately becomes a question mark for most people that are

paying attention to this, that the only team in the division that sold other than Chicago,

and that, that seems odd with a team that is so built to win now, and going forward.

That's not just about competing for a championship today, but for the next eight to ten years.

So, it seemed a little odd at first, and then we hear kind of, you know, or I should

say you have a second to think about it, you think, well, sell or you cap right away.

And in my immediate thought was, oh, what are they working on?

Because they're freeing up cap space to bring some big fish in.

That was my second thought, actually.

And then we get the news today that it turns out that Preston Smith requested a trade

a couple of weeks ago, and they were just finally able to work it out, find a partner

and all that.

I got to say, a real quick shout out to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Oh, shit. My goodness.

And the way that they run things over there, it's got to be great to be a Pittsburgh Steeler

fan, man.

It really seems like a great team to root for.

Like, you never, you just, you never seem to have your head down, even in bad years.

But regardless, I thought that I had questions going into the trade when I first heard it,

I have even more now.

And not, not really about Green Bay, but why Preston Smith would want to leave such a

good situation in a team that is ready to win, going forward.

He knows that locker room better than I do.

I would think that that's a locker room you want to be in, unless you're not getting

the playing time that you think you should and all that.

But it just seemed different, a weird, it didn't seem like what I would have expected.

And then I was really surprised, they didn't make one darn move.

And that, I seem like there's moves to be made.

Like there's, there's no way that they couldn't have used an extra corner that they couldn't

have used.

I mean, I could, you could mention a couple of pieces.

Yeah.

It's not that they have holes, but it's, they have, they have opportunity to upgrade.

Yeah.

And at the very least, do what some of these teams did, like Cincinnati, I don't know

if they're a super bowl contender, but they're, they're going to, they're going to try.

Yeah.

And they need running back depth.

So they bring in a Khalil Herbert for some of the rounder, they got nothing for nothing.

And that's a great back.

Now he's not going to be your starter, but when you need somebody to grind for you, take

a couple carries off of your starting running, chase Brown's plate or whatever, that he's

a great back for that.

I've seen it.

He's a good back for those things and it costs you nothing.

You're adding depth to your team.

So if that guy does go down, it's not the end of the season.

It's, it, maybe it's in part two, because I have heard some complaints about this.

And I would say, well, you know, Green Bay kind of got started early on the, in the trade

deadline and bringing in Malik Willis.

And I think you could, you could see right now, the biggest hole that on that team was

back up quarterback.

And they fixed that.

I would feel, I would feel pretty confident about that if that was a packer fan.

Yeah.

So it really, they did make it.

And kicker.

I mean, they upgraded there too.

Exactly.

Yes.

So really, they've already fixed the hole.

So I mean, that's part of the reason why they probably didn't need to necessarily, I'm

sure that they made off.

Or as I'm sure Goot and Coates was on the phone.

But I, I guess he, those call those phone calls probably didn't last very long.

Well, and it's the same thing I talked about last week.

You know, baseball, football, it's the two teams I follow, Green Bay and St. Louis.

They, they are very similar in that regard.

Now, with Preston Smith, he was brought in when Green Bay really retooled that personnel

wise, that defense, because they've been, they were three, four defense from when they

won the Super Bowl.

And since then, they found coordinators that kept that player set.

Well, now they slip to what a four, three, I want to say, or four, four, I forgot.

Four.

Okay.

Four, four.

Four is a difference.

And Preston is a four, as a three, four guy.

And how many times, and I'd have to go back and look at the defensive mistakes penalties

there?

How many times did he line up off sides?

Hmm.

This season, because I can, I can remember two or three against Tennessee.

Yeah.

And that's the thing is when you are, and I never, I never played the sport, but I've

watched enough about it and I've watched enough tape and I've had enough conversations.

I feel pretty confident what I'm talking about here.

When you have that four, you have your two on each sides of the ball, so to speak.

And then you might have outside linebackers playing up.

Well, you are used to playing more centrally located where you're lining up over maybe

the, the be gaps of the, of the garden, the tackle.

Okay.

Well, now you're playing where you're going to have basically two nose tackles on both

a gaps, and then you're playing out maybe a little further on the outside of the tackles.

And that's not where you're, you know, I mean, you're professional, you should be able

to do it.

But I don't think that the scheme may be fit his skill set and he's like, you know, for

me to play and to be really helping, I got to go elsewhere.

And Pittsburgh's always been a three, four.

And okay.

Well, Pittsburgh, it is.

I mean, he probably didn't want to go to a, to losing team like Dallas or something like

that, whatever they run, I mean, even, even, uh, Dak Prescott sitting there as boy,

we blank suck.

You know, I mean, I saw that.

I'm like, he didn't say that.

I saw the video.

Yes.

He sure is.

Um, so that's why that's why I, I just kind of say, you know what, he wanted to go.

And it was amicable.

It wasn't.

I don't think any bad, bad stuff like Zadarius kind of was, um, or, um, Martellis Bennett.

That was a bad one.

He wanted to go.

Okay.

Get the heck out of here.

This one was a, it just ain't working in the words Mark Knopfler that ain't working.

And okay.

Well, let's get something.

And that, that, that was the main thing.

The second part was, once I heard the numbers and the structure and that Pittsburgh was

taking it, they're going to do something at some point in the off season.

Now is that bring up a wide receiver that because I don't know if Christian Watson's

going to stick around, um, Musgrave, uh, nothing against Musgrave because I like him.

But I think Tucker Kraft has proven he is the tight end number one, um, maybe an offensive

lineman.

They bring in her a couple of them, uh, I think they're going to still continue to build

depth through the defense through the draft.

That's what they're going to do, uh, whereas like when the 90s, I mean, I could talk for

hours about it in the 90s.

What a green bay do they drafted the offense and maybe now they did pick up free agents

of Keith Jackson, Don BB, Andre Ryzen, okay, but they also picked up free agents of Sean

Jones out of Houston, Reggie White out of Philly, uh, Santana Dotson out of, uh,

Tampa, uh, Eugene Robinson, Mark Pryor, how did anybody ever run on that team?

I counted anybody.

Well, Terrell Davis did in the biggest time that he could, and that's unfortunate.

But, but you get what I'm saying is I think it's a calculated move.

It was someone that wanted to go that they could go and how is it going to hurt?

Oh, we'll see.

I mean, Green Bay's next few games a couple of weeks ago looked, oh, who cares?

But now it's looking, oh, well, those teams are getting healthy again.

So let's see what happens.

So, so we'll see, um, but I think it was all in the up and up.

He wanted to go.

Green Bay felt, okay, hey, we want to help you out.

You've been great for us.

Let's get you something for you.

And who's to say that Green Bay doesn't try, you know, trade a seventh and a sixth to move

up in the fourth.

Yeah.

I think one thing that is also clear with the Met La Flore run team and maybe it's

good and good.

Maybe it's full of Flore or both of them.

They are definitely a locker room team.

Yes.

They're a team that they, they want a healthy locker room.

Yep.

I think that they will, they will do that even spite of talent that they will, um, bring

in a guy who's, you know, they'd rather have a guy who's a three than a five, but the three

has a better attitude.

Um, and honestly, that, that works for teams.

Like, I think we, we, we see that locally with our teams, with our rafters and our river

kings.

I think we see that on a larger level with plenty of teams that have that kind of structure.

Your cardinals are one of those teams that tends to do a lot of that.

There, there's a few guys that they, that, that, uh, do it and, uh, uh, uh, uh,

I, God, what's his name, but, but to it, he, he more or less said, uh, uh, you're a problem.

You need to go.

Yeah.

And now to that upset the, the clubhouse a little bit, yeah.

But did it help them out during the course of that season?

Yep.

Sure did.

Yeah.

Uh, I'm looking at the trade deadline and I think that, uh, you know, you, there's a couple

of move.

We'll wait and see what moves really worked out for people, but we don't have to wait

to see if the Andre Hopkins is going to work out in Kansas City because that feels

like that.

That was a pretty good move by them.

I think it was.

I mean, especially for them being a team that's, uh, that wide receiver's arguably their

weakest spot.

Yeah.

That, that was one.

But do they still have enough to, uh, to, to, to me, I see a lot out of them of what

I saw to the 2011 Packers, you're winning your games, you're winning close games, you're

playing well in the regular season.

I still think, even though Baltimore got beat by them in the first game, I think Baltimore's

a better team.

I think Buffalo might be a better team and, and Denver, they're sneaky.

Denver, sneaky.

There's a couple of sneaky teams in the AFC, uh, so, uh, uh, Pittsburgh, that's another

one.

That's one.

That I'm sitting there.

I mean, it stinks because I've always kind of had a soft spot for Kansas City and, and

Pittsburgh as well.

That if I was in a Packer fan, I'd probably be one of those two, um, but that's, that's

kind of where, where I just say they're going to get caught somewhere.

And, and, and when they're, when they go and I understand the weather, the weather is

a big neutralizer.

Both teams got to play in it.

But when you arguably, if you want to take that to, to, uh, point conversion play, which,

if you get it, does Kansas City March down the field, do they not, I don't know.

But when you are playing against Baker Mayfield, who's still one of the best quarterbacks in

the game right now, who doesn't have any real strong receivers, now what, uh, uh, I, I,

don't know my friend, uh, he took you guys just about to the map.

I'm, I'm stuck in a weird situation here with this because, uh, for one, I, I, I refuse

to bet against Patrick Mahomes, even if it's just him, I mean, like literally just Mahomes

out there.

There's no whole line.

There's no receivers.

I'm still betting on him.

That's, that's what, how much I, I believe in this kid and I just feel like he's that

good.

But we're trying to see some injuries.

I also, I also believe that it's almost impossible to repeat in football.

Like I, I don't know if there's a tougher sport to three-pid and, uh, I mean, certainly

baseball is a great option throughout there, but it hasn't happened since 60s Packers.

It's hard to imagine somebody a team doing that, especially in this day and age, uh, and

like you just said, the injuries are piling up and some of those things and, and, and one

other thing with that team that, um, for me, that, that stands out.

So, uh, you know, you go back and you don't have to go too far too far back and we've seen

plenty of teams have done this.

I just used the baris as an example because I obviously watched that.

But the year the last time the bears went to the Super Bowl 900 years ago, um, 2008, I was

in college sitting above my last year college, every ball bounced their way.

They had a talented team.

Oh, a great defense, a very, a very talented defense, not a bad offense, but not a Super Bowl

caliber offense.

There is only a let them off the hook, but they had, they had every ball bounce their way.

The very next season couldn't be more opposites.

Oh, man, they're bad.

Every single ball bounced literally the opposite direction.

Kansas City has had two years of this where every ball seems to bounce their way.

That, that runs out.

You, you can't, you can't build on that.

Well, they have built on that, but you, you can't count on that.

You can't count on that happening.

Like, hey, you know what?

Things are just going to work out.

Um, eventually that, that chickens come home to roost.

Eventually, you're not going to be able to live on that.

I'm, I, I'm, I want them to, I'd to be honest with everybody.

I don't really have a, anybody in the race here, but if I got to choose, I want to see

Patrick Mahomes in a Super Bowl.

And after that, I don't care if they win or lose.

I just want to see him in a Super Bowl.

It's one of the most, I, I still think that the, um, so Larry Fitzgerald in the Super Bowl,

especially that second half, I've never seen a wide receiver change a game before, like

that, let alone in the Super Bowl.

Like that man alone, uh, change that game in that second half to where Arizona almost won

that thing.

Arguably should have.

Yeah.

Yes.

I, I think that, uh, we've seen a couple of performances like that in Super Bowls, but

I still think, and the more I think about this, the more I'm going to stand on this one,

I think the best performance I've seen by a quarterback in the Super Bowl was Mahomes

in the losing effort to Tampa Bay.

I've never seen a guy trying so hard when everybody knows, hey, you don't really have

much of a shot in this one.

You've got two guys doing your offensive line that, that are garbage men in the daytime.

That, that, this isn't their main job, um, they, they grabbed two guys out of the

stands to work, uh, the play, the offensive line in that game.

And this guy is going out there and making play after play after play, just trying so

dang hard to keep his team in it.

I, I, I'm used to seeing, uh, as a kid, Steve Grogon or, or whatever, and just looking

scared as all get out to see that, uh, 85 bear team or, or something like that, uh,

seeing Reggie White and just intimately, just, just, and she brought so was never the

same.

He's never the same after that little physically and mentally, I think, uh, like I've seen

that, I haven't seen a quarterback who has every reason to phone it in.

He's the, he's the face of the league.

He's all these things.

He's, he's got, you know, years and years ahead of him and everything.

Go ahead, man.

Just look in, win this one.

Go ahead and pick, no, no, no, no quitting this kid.

Just kept going out there and, and fighting and fighting and fighting.

Uh, it's, uh, you can't ask for much more in the quarterback.

I, I think one of the things that talent court, that talent scouts need to look

to when they're talking about quarterbacks.

And we're talking about how do we find 32 great quarterbacks?

Not just good, not just guys that can complete, you know, 50% of their passes.

I'm talking great.

How do you find 32 of them going forward?

It's not just the mobile quarterback.

It's not just the guy that can run and pass or anything like that.

It's between the ears.

How creative are they?

Can they improv?

Uh, yes, absolutely.

The thing that gets me so excited about Caleb Williams, it has nothing to do with his,

his measurements, anything to do.

He did in the combine.

It's every highlight I've seen of him and what he may do out of a horrible

offensive line at USC or, or, or some of the situations that he's in when he,

he has such a creative improv nature to him.

Right.

And that's the same thing that I always said about Justin Fields was if you can

make him stand on the pocket and beat you with his arm.

He won't.

And as of so far, and I saw, I started seeing this a little bit in the college game at

USC and he didn't see as much at Oklahoma.

But you saw it more at USC.

You contain him, make him beat you with his arm.

He doesn't, I won't say never does it, but it's, it's tougher for him.

Now, you let him move around.

You let him play a draw up in the dirt, school yard ball.

All bets are off and the same thing with Justin Fields.

Yeah.

And that was the thing of where I saw Green Bay and Detroit and Minnesota and whoever,

if they could contain them, they were going to beat them.

And some of these kids, uh, they got a certain point.

I think you got to let, uh, you got to take the handcuffs off.

Yeah.

You just got to let him play.

You're going to let him play and whatever happens happens.

Let him figure it out because you can only figure it out in real time.

This is not a job that you can do and figure out.

Now, a good offensive limelow will tell you if a, if a guy is going to make it

a quarterback or not, but for the most part is a coaching staff and everything.

You've got to see these guys in these two minute drills, uh, how they're playing

when they're down, yeah, all of those things, the body language is so important.

And, and that's, uh, where I want to go next with the, uh, the, you know,

the Lions and Packer game, um, because I, I spent last couple of weeks

talking about Jordan loves body language and how impressed I was with it.

And, and how that, to me is the kind of quarterback you want.

That's the, that's the kind of thing that the attitude that you want to see.

Uh, I, I saw for the first time in his career, uh, the bad body language.

And some of the Aaron Rodgers that he's learned and everything, um, and, and I,

you know, that's, that's one game, one moment, yeah, it wasn't even the whole game.

It was one moment or two.

So it was, it was, it was when, and exactly I'm happy.

Brought that up because the only one time I saw him do that was when he didn't

get enough, enough air on that lob pass attempt to, uh, Jacobs.

And it got picked and ran back for a touchdown, pick six.

That was the only time I saw him show, uh, being dejected and it wasn't at

anybody else but himself.

And that's, that's, that's, that's the kicker there is, I mean, you can say what I

want to, or you can say what you want about it.

You can say what I want about it.

And I'll tell you if you're right, but, uh, you can say what you want about it.

That's arguably two games that Green Bay shot themselves in the foot to the

better team win.

I'm not so sure to, but I mean, how many times do you got to hit a guy right in

the hands?

How many fall starts do you need to have that pick six doesn't help a missed

field goal, which I'm not mad about a missed field goal 46 yards in the driving

rain and wind.

I'm not going to be too upset about that, but not finishing drives settling for

three instead of getting those seven.

I mean, I understand that you with each play, it changes the, you know, what

play calls are made on the other side then and everything that goes with it.

But you can't keep giving teams big leads and then trying to come back in the

second half, which is what they'd really tried to do, but you had what two

touchdown passes dropped in the unzoned in that game, uh, missed field goal.

You left four points on the field, uh, you had the momentum and you're stopping

Detroit's offense.

I'm getting so confused by these coaches that they are you in the game or not?

Are you going to keep fighting or not?

So you're fighting, you're down by two scores.

You go for a field goal in the red zone.

Yeah.

Like I, what, what the what?

And then, okay, you're out of the game.

All right.

So why is Jordan love still out there?

Why is the guy with the broken growing still out there?

Yeah.

Why don't you give him a main, a little bit of a couple of series to heal here

a little bit and everything or something.

There's some things that go on and it's not just this coaching staff.

It's every coaching, it's every coaching staff that just you're sitting there

and like, these guys are paid millions of dollars to do this.

Like what, what is going on here?

What, what is the thought process?

And they won't explain to any of us because they weren't, you know, that, that's what

we know they do.

Yeah, but I, it is mind boggling sometimes to see this stuff.

And especially the leaving the player in the game when the game is out of hand.

I, you can tell me all day that, uh, Caleb Williams needs experience

in a two minute drill.

And I just don't say the only type way he can get that

experiences in real time.

I get all of this, but let's not pretend that this isn't a business.

You got a lot invested in that kid.

You got a lot invested in Jordan love.

You got a lot invested in Jalen Hertz and these quarterbacks that had no

business being out there.

It would two minutes left in the game, uh, for a, you know, blow out or a game

that's two scores away or any of this, uh, you play, if you are smart about this

game, you, you, whether you're GM, uh, offensive coordinator, head coach or

anything like that, you have to be able to do two things at once in your brain.

Think about right now, win, win, win.

Also, what are we doing next year?

What are we doing the year after that?

How are we going to survive?

And in order to do that, you're going to need a young quarterback.

You're going to need a healthy young quarterback.

Yeah, you are.

And that's, that's the other part of it too, is we've, we've talked about Dan Campbell

and how much you, you love the guy.

And I, I think, I think he was a great hire and everything went the way it should

be there.

The one area where I will say with Mr. Dan Campbell was a year ago against Kansas City

to start the season when they did that fake punt deep in their end zone.

And I said, he was trying to win a game today to, to prove a point.

And he did prove a point.

He's trying to win a game today that honestly doesn't matter.

This is a play.

Do you want to blow it in the first game?

And he did, and that stuff like that that, now, if we were to talk to him right now

about it, would he say, no, I was still the right call, you know, there's nothing

wrong with it.

But was it a play that maybe, and I didn't get a chance to see that NFC title game.

I was, I was, I was in a river King's game and I didn't see how if that play would

have helped, because they had the same problem that Green Bay had.

I mean, how many times does the ball got to hit you in the hands and you won't hold

onto it?

I understand that from the highlights and what I was told.

But man, Dan, that was a play, maybe you should have held on to later.

Okay.

So what you played to win the game as they, as it has been said many times, but was

that first game of the year on national TV against Kansas City?

Maybe you're trying to prove something to the fan base of the team and the ownership

by going all in in that game, maybe that might be.

I would love to hear his thought process on it if he didn't announce it, but that's

one where wide blow it down.

Yeah.

Yeah, 100%.

You know, the, the, it's interesting.

I believe that Dan Campbell went to the Tom Tibido School of Coaching where I'm just

going to, but I'm just going to grind my players into the ground and next man up.

I remember what Ron, it does, I, exactly, I don't know that that model ever works.

I said, that's the thing that holds me back a little bit about Detroit.

Everything that actually part of, one of the biggest reasons I think Detroit could win

a Super Bowl is also the reason I think they couldn't is, is their head coach.

They got a talented team.

They've done a, that GM is awesome.

It does, it's done some really great work.

That franchise is going, I think it's going to be a long time before they become a

laughing stock again.

Like they're building, they're going to be relevant, you know, over there.

All that being said, you know, Tom Tibido is a great regular season coach.

His players are broken by the time the playoffs come around.

Yeah, I know this better than most.

I've seen him, I've seen it so many times.

I should still be watching, I should be seeing Derek Rose and his career right now.

He should be wrapping up his career right now.

Instead, he's out there.

I don't know what he's doing.

But in any playing basketball, they ain't doing what he's supposed to be doing.

We will take a quick time out.

We'll come back and talk some river kings.

We'll have our stat of the show coming up for you as well.

We'll get into our NFL and college football weekends as well.

All that and we'll get into our local schedule here.

And playmakers brought to you by quality plus printing, getting your words out

here in Wisconsin Rapids.

Welcome back, everybody to WFHRs playmakers.

Michael and James hanging out with you this afternoon.

Feel free to give us a call, 715-424-2600.

Call up, make sure the phones are working.

We, we, there's all out of here from you.

Love to hear from you.

Call up, enjoy the conversation, everybody.

We got some river kings conversation to have.

We will get into a little bit of Bucks and Brewers talk.

If we have time, I'd like to get into the Heisman candidates right now.

Like to touch on that if we have time.

And certainly we'll wrap up looking at our schedule in the college

and NFL schedules for the weekend.

But I got our stat of the show, Michael.

Got our stat of the show here.

And it involves Mr. Patrick Mahomes.

And I, one of them mentioned Kansas City is also kind of a,

like a cousin team to me as well.

My, my papa growing up, his best friend was from Kansas City.

They went to go see a bunch of games there.

So he talked highly of the chiefs forever and got me really into the,

the running back situation over at Kansas City when they had Barry Word and Christian

Koyet.

Oh, yeah.

They had Marcus Allen for a little while there and stuff.

There's some fun teams with Montana and Allen on that team and stuff.

There's some fun teams back there.

Well, we could have Farves and Barry Sanders in that conversation too.

They'd still be one in Super Bulls.

So outside of even just the excitement of watching a Patron Mahomes or something,

I have a, you know, I love for Kansas City as well.

And Patron Mahomes is 47 and 19 in games decided by seven points or fewer.

Okay.

47 and 19 and he's eight and two in overtime in his whole career.

That's, that includes playoffs.

I, I, I, I, I, I really love the story of Baker Mayfield.

Yeah.

You know, in college, didn't really have a feeling about him one way or the other.

Like a lot of the, the pro, like a lot of the, the headliners in college football,

I just enjoy seeing them play.

I don't really have much, I don't get to, I don't know these guys that well yet.

I was into the pros and I, I really respected the way that he kind of just took everything

on and didn't make any, I didn't hear excuses from him and I don't believe that we ever

have heard excuses from Baker Mayfield.

And while so many people were so quick and ready to like bring out the bus label and everything

on him, all he kept doing was trying to go out there and prove himself, playing hurt,

playing for a franchise that didn't seem to really want them and be coaches in four years.

It incredible what he has done with his career to where he is now, where he's an actual

MVP candidate right now.

You have to take that seriously.

He's done what he did in that game yesterday was way more impressive than what Patrick

Mahomes did, which was very impressive in itself.

But I mean, doing what he did with the backup receivers that he had and some of those things

and everything, just, he's had an impressive career and I love to see his bounce back.

There is no way, the famous scene of ripping the monkey off of Steve Young's back.

That whole bus label should never have been put on him and if anybody is still trying

to, you can rip that off.

That's not there.

So all that being said, it's so impressive to see what Mahomes is pulling off and these

stats are just staggering to me when you consider how fragile winning is in the NFL.

Every year we've got a team that surprises us and then the next year that team usually

fades away.

For every franchise that you've got that are pretty consistent, even they have their

down years.

Oh yeah.

Green Bay's had it.

New England.

Well, New England, they've kind of fallen off recently.

Yeah.

But man, since about the middle of, since about what, the middle 90s, yeah, there's been

a couple of years for Green Bay's been down, but they've been consistently one of the

better teams since the mid 90s, I mean, for the over 30 years, it would impress me.

I see it from the cheap seats.

So yeah, it's very impressive.

What you're saying about those numbers, so when the, run those past me one more time.

So Mahomes is 47 and 19 in games decided by seven points or fewer.

And that's playoffs, regular seasons.

Yeah.

Okay.

So how many of those were to Tom Brady?

Right.

And then eight and two in the playoffs?

One over time.

Yes.

Okay.

And how many of those were against Bill's?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And how many of those were against Tom Brady?

Oh, yeah.

I don't know if the Cincinnati one went to, no, no, the Cincinnati one didn't go down.

Yeah.

But there's been a couple of bills games.

So there's been a couple of New England games.

Yes.

So I mean, he's gone up against Josh Allen, who's one of the better quarterbacks in the league,

one of the best.

I will say.

And then, you know, good old cheat and Tom, but yeah, Brady's always going to have that

over him.

He'll always have that.

Allen and him have such a fun, like they're not rivals.

These are two guys.

They're friends off the field and everything, but they are in the field.

They're rivals.

And that's a fun one to watch happen.

It is.

And it's not going anywhere anytime soon.

No.

That's going to be that way for a long time.

Another impressive turnaround with Josh Allen.

Another one where you know, they, they, oh, the book is written on him.

He can't complete a pass.

He's in the playoffs throwing a 40 yard bomb to a fullback, like I mean, you know, some

of that.

And then what does he do?

He comes around.

He works on in the off season.

Works on his accuracy.

A good quarterback coach and completely changes the directory of his career, like it's

a whole different ballgame now with him, where he's a walking first down.

And he, you, you cannot take his arm lightly.

That guy.

He can't arm his.

It's cool to see.

It is.

I want to talk a little river Kings with the voice of the river Kings for this season.

And you may be going forward, Mike.

Good batter.

Good bad.

Better for worse.

We've got some fun games coming up.

We've got the Kings in action tomorrow.

They'll be taking on the Del Dux.

That'll be in the Dels.

And then we've got two home games coming up this weekend as the Kings are back at the

Southam County Rec Center, seven o'clock puck drop as we take on the Northwest Express

in both these games.

For those that haven't been able to see the river Kings have moved up to second in the

standings in Northwest Division, shout out to them for that.

I think one of the things, Michael, that I want to talk about right away with this team.

And I talked about this with coach in the off season a little bit.

I would say that last year's team wanted to do this more.

I don't know if they pulled it off or not.

I'd have to go back and look at everything.

But this year's team is peppering the net.

Yes, they are.

They are.

Just throwing these pucks out there.

And I think when it comes to the game of hockey, even people that watch the game, there's

certain parts of it you may not see.

You got to read between the lines a little bit.

And so many of these shots are not necessarily intended to go in.

They're intended to be a bounce.

They're intended to get the ref out there and give your guys in there something else.

What I was talking about earlier, creativity and being able to improv and being able to

take that.

Okay, I've got I'm getting this rebound.

I know where I know I'm getting the rebound before the goalie does.

So I have a half a second before the goalie has a chance to turn or turn his head to look

at me or any of these things.

Where am I going with this, going five hole, going up, what am I doing?

And the real creative guys are able to take advantage of those moments, like Cindy

Crosby or Alex O'Vetchkin, and you know, certainly some of the younger players right now that

are coming into the league that are able to do that.

What we're seeing with the Kings is seeing a team that is not only peppering the net, but

they are protecting the net.

And that's so hard to pull off to have a team that is versatile enough that can do that

to have forwards that can be defensemen, to have centers that can be blockers.

It's a really well crafted team.

It's really fun to be watching right now.

That was that was one thing I was going to say was just how many shots on goal they are

getting.

And how are they all going to go in?

No, sometimes when they don't, you start getting frustrated and I understandably so,

but how well that defense is playing by stopping pucks from even getting to the goal tending.

And then the goalies, the stops they're making.

That I think I would have to look at the stats here and that's what I'm going to be doing

tomorrow and early part of Friday as I prepare for this weekend's games, which I'll talk

a little bit in a moment about.

They are doing such a good job of playing complimentary hockey.

We talk about complimentary football, they're playing complimentary hockey.

They're scoring goals and they're keeping the other team from scoring.

That sounds like, oh well, holy crap Mike.

Well, that's a smart statement.

No, think about it here.

I need to go down, break it down a little more.

In the words, a DX break it down.

Other things I could say that that can wait, but they are doing such a very good job of

stopping the rubber from getting to the goalie and the goalies are making the saves.

And half the time those saves are made a lot easier because they're getting slowed down

in that process.

Now does that catch 22?

Yeah, because sometimes it gets redirected out front and it's still going faster than

fast and that you thought you had it lined up and now you don't.

Now there's a goal.

That's disappointing, but on the other side of it, you are at least getting there and

making the other team think is this really a good opportunity or is the defense going

to get to it?

And I mean, I saw that firsthand when they played Hudson, granted Hudson, they're hurting.

They're struggling right now.

I think they're eighth out of nine teams.

I saw these the last one, but that game against the Delas is going to be huge in the regards

of they are one game behind the Minnesota mullets who are winning the whole thing right

now.

They're number one seed.

They will have now the exact same record and hopefully same amount of points if the

rampets just beat the Delas.

And they will be taking on the number three team in the standings, which is Northwest

Express.

I think they played each other earlier this season.

Yeah, I got the sheet right here.

Okay, right.

But I was going to look it up and I think if you got it, I've got it right here in my

grubby little fingers.

They played the mullets for sure and they lost over time in those season opener and they

beat them.

And they played the Sancti.

They played twice.

They played the Delas once and they played the Northwest Express once at the Spooner

Civic Center and beautiful Spooner and they lost four to six.

So what that says to me is how they played a close game on the on the road and I'd have

to take a look and see if it was a empty net goal that decided that otherwise, but they've

already been at Poppy Waterman Ice Arena for the Delas and they beat them for two.

So you've got that in your mind there.

And if you can at least get a split or an overtime loss against Northwest Express, that's

going to really help where you want to be because after that, you're on the road for

one, two, three, four, five, six, six games up until in about a month when they have backed

back weekends home against the Blue Ox and Battle Creek, Battle Creek's a cross divisional

game.

But the Blue Ox, according to what it was before, they are one of those teams that's right

there in the mix too, about fourth place as well.

So this is a big weekend of home ice, get three wins.

And if you can get three wins, you might be sitting at the top spot and then you go to

that other showcase that's down in the Mount Clemens Ice Arena, wherever that is.

Yeah.

I'm looking forward to talking to Coach about that one.

I'm curious about a couple things when it comes to that.

Last time the Delas and Kings faced off, we had 57 shots on goal, which is where this

really started standing out to me, obviously, that's an incredible amount for those who don't

know hockey.

That's insane.

You don't see that very often at all, let alone, we've had at least two games this season

with an insane amount of shots on goal and they're averaging at least 30, at least 30

to 33 shots on goal, which is again, not your average average in hockey.

It's pretty impressive.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Kings build hockey up and down the river and looking

forward to hearing you calling these men.

It's going to be fun.

I'm looking forward to it.

I'll try to stop in or not stop in, but call up on Friday as a massage and the throat

with good old mountain view there to keep the vocal cords going, gosh, no, I'll need

it by the end of Saturday, but that's one where the girlfriend's turn says, oh, so

nice that you're so quiet.

So she loves it.

This is a great game.

She does, but she doesn't, she doesn't, she doesn't because it takes me away from spend

a time with her just like Bo Hauntine this time here or Hauntine in general, but at the

same time, it's, oh, she likes a nice quiet.

I did want to mention again, a puck drop at seven this week and Friday and Saturday, seven

o'clock start times north with six press.

Let's show them what home ice advantages get your tickets at riverkingshockey.com.

If you can't make it to the game, we got your back.

We have got you over on 105, 5WY Iraq.

Our pre games will kick off about 650 over there, join Michael and Seth for some great coverage

and looking forward to it.